I want to be an interpreter. What classes should I take in college and for how many years??

Question

Im a junior in high school and i want to be either a sign language or spanish interpreter and i dont know how many years i need to attend college so does anyone know????

I am in Spanish 3 and already know that pretty well; I have been teaching myself sign language for a year. I want to be an interpreter for either one. I don't know about being a UN interpreter, but I definitely want to be an interpreter for one of the 2.

Answer 1

For most jobs, you do not need a certificate or diploma in interpreting. An exception is being a court interpreter. For that you need to take a test and be certified in most states because of the nature of the job--you are translating testimony at a trial. However, for UN jobs, and most other work, you just need to know the language and have a college degree. So I suggest majoring in Spanish, getting a BA and an MA in it, and then you will be set to interpret. Keep in mind many thousands of people in this country know English & Spanish. Therefore, you might want to do a double major--Spanish and education, or business, so that you can work in education or business in another country or for an agency like the UN, the Department of State, or various non-profit groups that need bi-linguals who are trained not just in language, but in an academic area.

Answer 2

This is an interesting question. Why not do both? You would, of course, have to learn Spanish, but that is offered in most schools. I don't know about Sign, though.

If you have to learn them separately, then opt for the Spanish first because when you are interpreting, you can't take time to mentally translate... you have to know the language well enough that it just comes naturally. Once you can do that with Spanish, then learning and applying Sign Language should be much easier.

I wish you well.... sounds like a worthwhile thing to do.

Answer 3

First you have to speak another language; preferably some weird *** language no one knows or has heard of.

I'm quite sure that French, Spanish and German interpreters aren't in very high demand. But if you can learn some obscure African language, you're gold.

Answer 4

If you want to be a spanish interpretter, you are going to have to get a degree in spanish/ latin american studies. usually people also get a masters degree, they'll do a combined ba/ms and finish in 4-5 years. if you really buckle down and take a lot of classes you could maybe finish w/ a masters in 4.

Answer 5

Check with your Community college, I think the course it called
Manual Communications..
My friend takes classes for it... Degree is two years!
Not sure..

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